


Not Quite Like Falling Asleep

by sheepsleet



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death, but also not entirely seeing your life flash before your eyes, i just really love background Uchiha characters, not quite the light at the end of the tunnel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 13:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8492410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheepsleet/pseuds/sheepsleet
Summary: "It's a necklace," Itachi says pointedly. 
"Three for luck," Mikoto says in explanation. "Rings, passed from my mother to me. They've been going down the line for a while."





	

Mikoto blinks. 

The hospital, by the smell. The walls are white and her body aches, but that's to be expected, isn't it? She's been aching for so long that the pain is, while not a friend, familiar. But strangely, this pain is sharper, newer. Fugaku isn't present, also strange. He hasn't missed a single hospital visit since she had made jonin and came back with a career-crippling injury. He'd been doing clan duties that day and had not expected her back considering she left as Mikoto Uchiha, not ANBU Mongoose. 

But Fugaku had been right next to her, hadn't he? They had been talking, discussing the coup. Itachi had come, dressed as ANBU with an unsheathed sword. 

Oh, her tragic son. Her peace-loving child who would have done better teaching in the Academy, but a genius of his caliber was needed when Uchiha popularity and approval was so low. His shoulders were so frail beneath the bone-white armor of ANBU, tears running down his face. Her poor boy, he never did learn to stop caring so much.  
The door opens. Ah, yes, she remembers this. Sandaime-sama comes in with Danzo on his heels, both demanding to know just what the hell happened. 

She breathes in— 

Next, she is in the Academy. There's a familiar round-faced redhead at the front of the class, glaring her defiance at her new home. Kushina. Gods, she hadn't seen Kushina in years. She looked so tiny. Out of curiosity, Mikoto glances at where Minato is sitting and sees his utterly besotted look. No matter how many years passed, he never did get rid of the dumb idiot face. 

"--so everyone make sure to welcome Kushina Uzumaki. Kushina, you can sit next to Miss Uchiha." Her old Academy teacher, Gonzo-sensei, looks exactly as she remembered. She hadn't awakened the Sharingan at this age, but her eidetic memory was something she had before the doujutsu. "Miss Uchiha, if you could raise your hand?" 

Mikoto raises her hand and mentally notes how anxious Kushina looks. She smiles and— 

Her wedding day. She's in all white and looks like a ghost in the mirror. While she would have loved to not deal with the trouble of a wedding to the Clan Heir, politics did come at the strangest times. She's wearing a pure white kimono and the only color is the black of her hair and the red of her lip paint. Fugaku told her she was beautiful. 

"I look like a yuki onna," she murmurs to herself and is whacked sharply on her forearm. 

"Don’t say such inauspicious things," her mother snaps and returns to fiddling with Mikoto's hair. 

"Yes, Mother," Mikoto says on reflex more than anything else. Her mother's been dead ten years now. 

Satsuki Uchiha fiddles with a ring on her finger, just a steel loop around her finger, and removes three.

"Three for luck, my dear," Satsuki whispers, placing them in Mikoto's palm and— 

"--ppy birthday, Itachi," Mikoto hears herself say and smiles. 

Her son is ten and a chunin. He's long graduated from the Academy, but he doesn't have the pinched look on his face from too much stress. He looks happy. 

When was the last time she'd seen him look happy? When was the last time she'd seen a smile? 

"What is it?" Itachi asks, delicately picking at the tape on her present to unwrap it whole. 

"You'll see," Mikoto smiles gently and watches his expression carefully. Last time, she'd been too careless and missed Itachi's reaction to his gift. 

He fiddles with it more and finally unwraps the box. 

"A box?" He asks facetiously. 

"Surprise," Mikoto dryly responds. "I know my child best." 

He just blinks, doesn't react to her sarcasm. Perhaps he isn't old enough to feel comfortable snarking with her? How strange, when she's been getting sarcastic responses for a while now. 

"It's a necklace," Itachi says pointedly. 

"Three for luck," Mikoto says in explanation. "Rings, passed from my mother to me. They've been going down the line for a while." 

A while, more like a single generation. Itachi has the duty to pass on the Uchiha luck to his child, but he is too young. He has always been too young, she can't believe she thought it was a good idea to— 

The steel in her chest is cold. Itachi is crying. Fugaku is dead or dying on the floor and blood is pooling. 

"I'm proud of you," Mikoto smiles. Her gentle son. Perhaps this way he can get away. 

"Proud," she could hear her mother echo. 

"Hi," she hears Kushina say shyly. "I'm Kushina." 

"Report," Sandaime-sama demands, his voice filled with power and not yet weakened by the frailty of old age. 

"Lucky you." Her mother. 

"I'm going to be Hokage, just you wait!" Kushina. 

"Mongoose, focus." A chiding scold from Danzo-sama himself. She regrets not opposing him—snakes have no change against mongooses. 

"Mum?" Itachi, cradling delicate links of steel. 

"Blessings." Mother. 

Kushina. 

Sandaime. 

Itachi. 

Sandaime. 

Danzo. 

Kushina. 

Where's Sasuke? Where's her baby? 

Kushina. 

Sandaime. 

Itachi. 

Itachi. 

"Itachi," she whispers with the last of her breath. 

It doesn't hurt anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Ahaha, thanks for reading! I'm sorry if it isn't exactly coherent, this was something I wrote when I was toooootally sleep deprived and close to passing out. But on the other hand, given the subject matter, I think that it kind of works? Because death isn't exactly linear and I kind of just ran with the whole idea of seeing your life flash before your eyes.
> 
> Um, I had a lot of ideas that I kind of remember and I think I tried to incorporate. I really don't approve of Kishimoto's habit of making all kickass kunoichi turn into housewives puttering about the house. And Mikoto was a jonin! The cream of the crop! And I'm pretty sure I saw something where Sasuke, when training to throw kunai, is like, "I'm better than Mom now!" even though he doesn't hit dead center. So I was thinking that there's no way Mikoto, a former jonin, would fuck up throwing something so simple as a kunai. So I was wondering why she would miss the target and I came up with two possibilities: she purposefully did to make her child feel better, or she had a career ending injury. And if it was the latter, it was something that was physically visible because she looks healthy and hale! So something happened and she no longer can grip kunai properly! So let's go with that.
> 
> God, I think my notes are longer than the fic itself. I should probably stop.


End file.
